Islamic Textiles in the Brooklyn Museum

Tiraz Textile Fragment with Inscriptions with Name of Caliph al-Muti'

The large, woven inscription in black on this undyed plain linen textile includes part of the Muslim profession of faith: “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” The strikingly bold, unadorned Kufic script of this fragment is characteristic of the pre-Fatimid period in Egypt during the second half of the tenth century and contains the name of the cAbbasid caliph al-Muti‘, who ruled from 946 to 974.

Coptic and Arabic influences meld in this early Islamic textile fragment to create a fascinating hybrid of Coptic-style human and animal figures in the main band of decoration, and a curious Arabic Kufic inscription that has been transformed into an illegible series of decorative geometric motifs along the upper register. Early Egyptian Islamic textiles such as this one were probably still woven by Coptic weavers, as suggested by the coarse, dark wool foundation and by the way the tapestry-woven Coptic-style decoration in wool and linen is paired with an illegible Kufic script band.

The graceful bird in this textile medallion is reminiscent of Late Antique and Coptic motifs, yet the textile’s color scheme suggests early Islamic manufacture in Egypt under the Tulunids (circa 868–905).

A speckled deer or gazelle nibbles on leaves under a canopy of large fronds in this textile fragment. The fine weave and relatively light weight of the piece suggest it was part of a domestic textile, perhaps a coverlet.

The deer was a popular motif in Egypt, inherited from the Late Antique artistic vocabulary. In early Islamic times the animal symbolized good luck, a visual equivalent of the expression “good wishes,” which was inscribed in Arabic on many early and medieval-era Islamic objects.

This medallion contains a hare ready to leap from the wide tan leaves that surround it. The technical and stylistic traits of this fragment—including tapestry-weave technique and the medallion motif—relate it especially to Coptic textiles. The palette of olive green, brown, and blue on undyed linen, however, suggests Islamic origin. The fragment’s large size and weight indicate it was a wall or floor covering.

Leaping hares in twelve roundels make up the red-ground tapestry band of this fragment. Hares were associated with speed, the hunt, and good fortune in ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, and Roman art. This popular motif of the Fatimid period in Egypt appears in a variety of artistic media including ceramics, wood, metalwork, and textiles.

Later Fatimid tiraz textiles demonstrate a revival of Late Antique and Coptic motifs, including the hares and back-to-back birds inhabiting the central medallions of this textile fragment. Depictions of animals and birds, combined with lavish banded ornamentation of colorful, stylized motifs, overtook the importance of historical inscriptions in later Fatimid textiles of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

From the earliest period after the emergence of Islam, textiles were among the most economically and artistically significant material objects. One important type of textile is known as tiraz, a word of Persian origin that means "embroidery" and which later referred to the workshops in which these cloths were made. Tiraz textiles were produced for the ruler to offer to favored individuals as honorary gifts, and often contain inscriptions that include the ruler's name and the date of manufacture.

This extraordinary silk tiraz fragment belongs to a group of fragments that together make up the earliest dateable Islamic textile. When placed together, the fragments' inscription, seen along the upper register of the Brooklyn fragment in yellow silk, reads: "The servant of God, Marwan, Commander of the Faithful. Of what was ordered [to be made by] al-R. [or al-Z.] in the tiraz of Ifriqiya [Tunisia]." Although there were two rulers named Marwan during the reign of the Umayyads (661–750), the earliest Islamic dynasty, the textile is ascribed to Marwan II (reigned 744–750), since Marwan I ruled for only about a year and had no known associations with tiraz textiles.

A collaborative study of this group of textile fragments, now dispersed in various collections across the world, was supported by the government of Tunisia and the Brooklyn Museum in 1997.

Catalogue Description: Large heavy rectangular textile, cut on all sides, of brocaded plain compound twill weave silk. The fabric has two warps and two wefts. The warps are white and red, and the wefts are silver and white. The ground of the face is made by the silver wefts, which are held in place by the white warps. The textile is brocaded with a large rosebush, bird and butterfly group arranged in drop repeat, done in red, yellow, green and dark blue silk and gilt threads. The brocading is bound down in twill by the red inner warp, which thus appears on the surface. This warp never appears on the back, which is white twill, save on the brocaded areas, which are covered by floats of the silver weft. The diagonal lines of the twill run on the face from the lower right to the upper left. A few of the silver weft threads are broken, and the red brocading and the red warps are worn away on a number of places, revealing the white warps and wefts in twill weave beneath. The textile is mounted on a board placed on wooden frames and glazed.

In the fifteenth century, the Ottoman textile industry established itself in the province of Bursa (southeast of Istanbul), which became known as both a major manufacturing center and a depot of silk cocoons imported from Iran.

Pieces like this velvet panel were used to decorate walls or were cut to form clothes or domestic funishings for the upper classes. Flowers, particulary carnations and tulips, were recurring motifs that were very popular in Ottoman textile design. With their bold simplicity and often crimson grounds, Ottoman textiles are suggestive of supreme confidence ahd power. The vigilant care of these treasured panels by the court and the elite has ensured their preservation over the centuries.